by Scottie Westfall

Treed opossum, 1917

This photo comes from Mammals of Americaby Harold Elmer Anthony. This book was published in 1917, so it unfortunately refers to the opossum hunter as a “Southern Darkey.”

Of course, African Americans living the South often hunted opossums for meat, and they relied upon good treeing dogs to assist them in their hunts.

This dog appears to be of a farm shepherd type, but just as often, they would rely upon their curs or feists to tree the marsupials, which they usually captured alive. To get the opossum out of the tree, they would shake the tree to make it fall out.

The opossum would then be brought home in a burlap sack and then fed table scraps for several weeks to make the flesh taste better. Opossums are known carrion eaters, and it was commonly believed that the carrion diet tainted the meat.

After a few weeks of being fed table scraps, they would slaughter the opossum.

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My father hunted “possums,racoons rabbits and “tree rats” to put meat on the table.. He was English/German/Apachie.. Poor is poor and he said they would have gone hungry many times if not for their farm collie/German Shepherd.
He would catch and sell Catfish.. That’s how they got out of the Dust Bowl to the Houston Shipyards. Daddy could weld and there was a war coming.
It’s a good story (the moral is,when you pray,look around.. Sometimes the answer to your prayers is a fish tail.)